Update: McCotter campaign staffers charged

FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2011 file photo, then-U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich. is seen in Ames, Iowa. McCotter resigned in July 2012 after fraudulent petition signatures prevented him from making the ballot to seek another term in Congress. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

Four staff members for former U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter have been charged with election fraud over nominating petitions that kept McCotter off the Aug. 7 primary ballot.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette alleges that McCotter staffers Don Yowchuang, Paul Seewald, and Mary Melissa Turnbull, and former staffer Lorianne O’Brady were involved in a deliberate fraud involving a pattern of copying and altering petitions in order to qualify the five-term congressman for the 2012 Michigan ballot.

He announced the charges late Thursday morning.

• Yowchuang, 33, of Farmington Hills, faces 17 charges filed in Livonia’s 16th District Court. He was McCotter’s deputy district director. The charges include 10 counts of election law forgery, one count of conspiracy to commit a legal act in an illegal manner, and six counts of falsely signing a nominating petition.

Advertisement

• Seewald, 47, of Livonia faces 10 charges in district court in Livonia, including one count of conspiracy to commit a legal act in an illegal manner, and nine counts of falsely signing a nominating petition.

• Turnbull, 58, of Howell, a former district representative faces two charges in district court in Troy including one count of conspiracy to commit a legal act in an illegal manner and one count of falsely signing a nominating petition.

• O’Brady, 52, of Livonia, a former scheduler, faces five charges in Livonia’s district court of falsely signing a nominating petition as a circulator.

“This was not simply keystone cops run amok – serious criminal acts were committed, and following a thorough and complete investigation, felony charges have been filed,” Schuette said.

Schuette said McCotter “was asleep at the switch,” that his staff felt they were above the law and that residents of the 11th Congressional District “got stiffed.”

Schuette’s 10 week investigation included interviews with 75 witnesses and review of thousands of records, including 136 nominating petitions filed with the Michigan Secretary of State.

Most of the signatures were rejected and McCotter failed to make the primary ballot.

Schuette, a former congressman and judge who once served with McCotter in the Michigan Senate, said the investigation indicates filings of false nominating signatures dating back to 2008.

McCotter, 46, a five-term congressman from Livonia, decided against a write-in campaign for the nomination after failing to make the ballot.

He abruptly quit Congress last month paving the way for Kerry Bentivolio to be the Republican nominee in November against Democrat Syed Taj in Tuesday’s primary.

Currently, the district includes the Oakland County communities of Highland, White Lake Township, Milford, Lyon and Commerce townships, part of Waterford Township, and Novi, Walled Lake, Wolverine Lake, Wixom and part of Northville.

Contact Charles Crumm at 248-745-4649, charlie.crumm@oakpress.com or follow him on Twitter @crummc and on Facebook. More information is at oaklandmichiganpolitics.blogspot.com.